What Do We Do with Humour In Cancel Culture?

I know what you're going to say, there's no way we're going to give it up, as humour is ingrained into the commerce culture, and look at how many successful brands have managed to navigate their creativity with humour and even made history. Facts! I’ll give you that.

Neuroscientifically, customers laugh and feel good because they feel pride. Whenever we manage to solve a puzzle, a riddle, we are rewarded with pleasure. So in this case, we don’t care about the quality of the humour, as long as we get it and find it funny. And when it comes to instincts, it's hard to focus on morality, right?

But wait a minute, someone suddenly turns on the light and warns us that it's 2023 and there's an elephant in the room that needs to be recognized. OMG, no, it’s cancel culture. And it's not going away anytime soon.

Whyyyyy? Because finally the less favoured and often silenced audiences have found spaces where their voices can be heard, and communities have become more solid defending their struggles.

So what’s going to happen? Does humour need to shift? What does this mean for brands?

Of course humor won't go away, it's our perfect coping mechanism for not going crazy, but I hope it becomes one that doesn't laugh at the weak, one that isn't lazy and doesn't align with a misogynistic culture that says, "Oh, come on, but it's funny" - Funny to whom?

For brands, it means less ignorance, and more responsibility to recognise who their customers really are, what issues they face, and including them in as many conversations as possible. Is not that hard, isn’t it?

And, to be honest, if we're going to introduce some behavioural economics, I'd prefer surprise over humour in advertising, because it releases the most dopamine, whereas humour can become predictable or annoying.

by Manuela Dospina